Winnipeg Transit

About Winnipeg Transit


Winnipeg Transit is a public transit agency and bus service provider to the City of Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada. Established in 1882 it currently employs nearly 1,600 people, including 1,100 bus drivers who play a critical role in moving almost 170,000 passengers around the city on an average weekday.


The company currently operates a fleet of over 600 buses, with plans to increase this number to more than 650 by the end of 2024. To house its ever-growing fleet, Winnipeg Transit has one of the biggest facilities in North America which covers 36 acres and almost a million square feet.


What makes Winnipeg Transit unique to other public transit operators is that it keeps its own maintenance and servicing in-house, employing 180 dedicated staff to look after its buses, cars, trucks and support vehicles. In addition, Winnipeg Transit is one of the few operators still doing rebuild processes and manufacturing onsite. With such a large group of dedicated and knowledgeable personnel, Winnipeg Transit is committed to providing the best possible service for the people of the city.

"Working with the team at Petro-Canada Lubricants, Allison Transmission and using DuraDriveTM HD Synthetic 668 has been a game-changer for us. The problems we had been experiencing disappeared almost instantly. It has been a great partnership and throughout the trial it felt we were in very safe hands and working together as one team. The change the product has made is truly amazing.”

Jason Lavoie,
Superintendent of Fleet Maintenance and Procurement,
Winnipeg Transit

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Winnipeg Transit’s large repair and maintenance team are focused on keeping its significant fleet on the road and running to its strict timetable to keep the city’s residents, commuters and tourists moving each day.


Historically, Winnipeg Transit used a competitor transmission fluid across its fleet and experienced only minor issues. But as new energy efficient transmissions were introduced to the fleet, with features such as torque converter lock up at lower speeds, Winnipeg Transit’s maintenance team began to have more problems.


As explained by Jason Lavoie, Winnipeg Transit were experiencing a grunting and growling sound from vehicles, caused by premature failure of the torque converter, which resulted in drivers feeling a delay in shifting gear and in some cases slipping out of gear completely. This would require an oil change, meaning equipment downtime and service calls on the road. Winnipeg Transit’s vehicles previously were running up to 10,000 hours before an oil change, but due to the issues experienced when using the more dynamic transmissions, this was reduced to 3,000 hours*. With more frequent oil changes comes more labour hours for Winnipeg Transit’s in-house maintenance team, more downtime and scheduling issues as well as more waste fluid, all things that significantly affect the bottom line.


Winnipeg Transit required a new automatic transmission fluid to stop the grunting and growling noises and keep its vehicles on the road.


*Best practice is to always follow the OEM recommended drain interval.

Winnipeg Transit engaged with its transmission manufacturer, Allison Transmission, to find the right fluid. Allison chose HF Sinclair brand, Petro-Canada Lubricants’ DuraDrive HD Synthetic 668, the global factory fill automatic transmission fluid for Allison on-highway transmissions, for the job. Winnipeg Transit agreed to undertake a near three-year trial of the fluid.


Fifteen units were trialled, five of which were filled with DuraDrive HD Synthetic 668. Oil samples were taken regularly to track the condition of the fluids and the resulting impact on transmission performance and oil drain intervals.


It soon became apparent that the friction modifier additives within DuraDrive HD Synthetic 668 made the difference and the noise would disappear instantly. The 5 transmissions filled with DuraDrive HD Synthetic 668 transmissions kept going through to the recommended drain interval.


Thanks to the friction modifier system’s durability and proven performance in commercial and heavy-duty transmission systems, DuraDrive HD Synthetic 668 was the right solution to solve the maintenance issues and significantly increase their oil drain intervals back to normal levels.

After nearly three years of regular oil sampling, Winnipeg Transit saw the benefits of using DuraDrive HD Synthetic 668 for its severe duty equipment, experiencing major improvements, including:


  • ELIMINATING MAINTENANCE ISSUES

  • DuraDrive HD Synthetic 668’s high performance additive package and ultra-pure base oil combination provides the fluid with greater resistance to friction concerns which instantly solved the torque converter failures and resulting grunting and growling noises that Winnipeg Transit were experiencing. This reduced the number of service calls that Winnipeg Transit’s maintenance team had to respond to and the fleet was on the road for longer.
  • IMPROVED OIL DRAIN INTERVALS

  • The trial demonstrated that when using DuraDrive HD Synthetic 668 formulated with ultra-pure, high quality Petro-Canada Lubricants synthetic base oils, it is possible to reach the 6,000 hour drain interval** of the original equipment manufacturer (OEM). Through regular oil sampling and analysis, Winnipeg Transit was able to keep its vehicles out on the road longer due to the reduced need for oil changes, while also saving on labour hours and reducing waste which translates into a more sustainable operation.


** Best practice is to follow the OEM recommended drain interval as well as used oil analysis across the drain to identify any oil issues if they occur. 6,000 hours is equivalent to 100K km or 62K miles for this field trial.

“Anyone running extreme duty equipment like us should be switching to DuraDrive HD Synthetic 668 – you can really increase those oil drain intervals when you upgrade to 668! I want to thank the wholly professional team at Petro-Canada Lubricants that put hours and hours into this project to ensure a successful outcome.”

Jason Lavoie,
Superintendent of Fleet Maintenance
and Procurement, Winnipeg Transit


The collaboration saw three innovative companies come together to successfully solve a problem. Representatives from Allison Transmission and Petro-Canada Lubricants were fully involved during the field trial at Winnipeg Transit’s facility, working with its knowledgeable team to ensure that DuraDrive HD Synthetic 668 made the difference. The Winnipeg Transit team knows that if there is any other issue, they know where to turn and look forward to working with everyone into the future.


TES 295® and TES 668® are registered trademarks of Allison Transmission, Inc.

DuraDrive™

Full synthetic and synthetic blend multi-vehicle transmission fluids

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